The picture above is an Anais Noir tomato.
Is it just me, or is there a flurry of activity everywhere? Maybe it's just the vibe here in California. But it seems that everything is stacking up and needing attention right now, please!
Fall is the best time for Californians to put in perrenials. Then there's "crush" and the other harvests that happen now. Time to build compost piles, clean up gardens, put mulch down. Add the local and state fairs, garden center sales, plant sales, weddings, birthdays, etc. etc..... Just seems like it all piles up at once.
Every day this week there's been something planned for after work. Fortunately, the cold fog has kept the plants from wanting too much water. I'm getting tomatoes and they are piling up on the kitchen counters. I've processed a few quarts, one quart frozen, one quart used for moussaka, one in the fridge. It looks like I could get another two or three quarts this weekend. But I don't want to repeat my last mistake. I cleaned up the counter tomatoes, par-boiled them, put them through the Tomato Press, and then cooked the sauce. I was pleased with the end product & the counters were clear of tomatoes. I went down into the garden to pick some flowers and whatever veggies were available. Wouldn't you know it that I picked almost the same number of tomatoes that I had just processed? So I had to do it again! Pick first, process second (make mental note!).
And I don't have much room in the freezer. I finally purchased the pressure cooker to can the tomatoes (and large pile of apples Mr. C brought home). But I'm just waiting for it to arrive. Oh UPS, where are you? So my frenzied mind tries to calm itself by thinking in rhyme:
Lack of produce? I now will recant,
As tomatoes drop off of my plants.
Till my pressurized pot
Arrives to my spot
I'd sure like to can, but I can't.
5 comments:
That is an unbelievably gorgeous tomato.
Thanks, and the Anais Noir is tasty too. I found it to be very versatile for eating fresh or cooking. The only downside was it makes the sauce a little on the green side.
Hmmm... green tomato sauce. Why not? We like pesto, don't we? Or would it turn a meat sauce into an unappetizing grey-green? Sauce aside, wouldn't it be beautiful sliced and plated with basil and fresh mozzarella slices, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic and maybe a little salt and cracked pepper?
Do you think Anais Noir is meaty enough for salsa? I made my first blended salsa yesterday, using whatever tomatoes I happened to pick, and it was delicious. It came out sweeter than most salsas, but the flavor was/is great.
Yes, it is meaty enough for salsa. My husband and I love "pico de gallo" which is just chopped fresh tomatoes, jalepeños, cilantro and onions.
They are great in a Insalata Caprese and the colors are fantastico! And I have another recipe for a dressing that I love on tomatoes in the summer and asparagus in the winter. I'll try to post it this evening on the recipe site.
In regards to being unappetizing for a sauce color, well, hard to say. I'm not doing the sauces with Anais Noir by themselves. So it takes a bit of a green color, but the other red tomatoes and the red from the Anais seems to even it out. Maybe I'll try to photograph some of the sauce "solo" so you can look. Thanks for the idea!
Love that gorgeous tomato and your rhyme! I say green sauce/juice/whatever is a neat idea! I have canned yellow tomatos for sauce lots of times, because they're lower in acid for heartburn sufferers. Food coloring can be added later if there are protests.
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